""",,;': / <t/ ':: "':" -:' @ .. ' . ' ,.. \ ': : ,'" iW , . :: " , : '" th.. ." :'" "..-.':'::::-:-: . .;- . ' " ."". .".- .."....;". '.' ' :,',' :' " : !; 1 ,:.'if ,'..' ", "ÚID , ._ .,.. ..4:, .::., ; f.Ù1 ;::: :'/&i: :- ' . .y , . """ '" ..>., ..j::!>!-# ".,. '. ..t':\;:;,':h;', " : :;;; "':; }<-: , : ,:,.":' .- ': '> ' ..........' " " , .. . , , . " '< ,>, :;- ::::; ::;?:;l*.' (>t >,, ...- * ':';'dl; If' Ji> 'ø '. . m" . , ' : :; ,:::..: j&Þ'l '. .' >' : .. '-:;::: 4i- "::;":. .... 20 broglio of the young had brought their elders together, and her enterprise in despatching the young girl to the Dal- matian coast had won his admiration. Mrs. Willoughby herself had had quite a life. He wondered now how many of the stories about her could be true. Had she, for instance, once caused a stir at the opera by wearing Indian feathers to the première of "The Girl of the Golden West"? Just how many years ago would that have been? H IS mind wandered off, as it would now and again, to Jamaica. When they drove back, would they have to go through Jamaica or could they avoid it by some detours? He was always thinking of Jamaica in summer. Our Jamaica, of course, not the island. One couldn't escape re- flection on Jamaica and all it stood for. From the first spring moment when reasons for going to Long Island be- come persuasive, Jamaica comes into being. That harassing problem on the train from the instant it drew out of the Pennsylvania Station: "Do we change at Jamaica or don't we?" The suspense, the terror, that one might make a mistake, be swept into some wrong angle of the island. Or worst , $ .â::r= " Æ,:"'7 Á ..':-: [I . . .::::!: ?:f V:.... c " . ........_......:... : ......:...::..... ..". ...__"...':w. ,.cl of all, be stranded in Jamaica itself. There were the inevitable traffic tangles Jamaica presented if one was d iving. The futility of the attempt to escape the town. The endless hours exhausted trying to escape it, and the inevitable return to its maze of streets and its red lights that halted cars for hours upon hours. What so- cial life was there in Jamaica? Who were its first families? Had it an un- derworld? It seemed a vast settlement curiously without centralization, with- out identity, with no reason for being except to torture New Yorkers who had the impulse for a breath of fresh air. Mr. Leavitt abruptly got up, shaking the sand from his beachrobe. He must be getting morbid, he thought, devoting quite so much mental activ- ity to Jamaica. With a glance back at Mrs. Willoughby recumbent and the two boys and their ball, he started off on a ramble. "No," said Mr. Leavitt to himself, turning his back on the sea and making for the dune, "no. Such mental drift- ing is not morbid. It is quite the op- posIte, in fact. Such mental lassitude, such lack of focus upon any consequen- ....... / Æ,:i/'" -"- tial matter, such aimless excursioning from one fancy to another, are im- portant factors of a day at the beach. Silliness is allowable, per haps requisite to the program. One must wash the mind in nonsense, and sun it and scorch it and tan it like the body, and rest it with trivialities. My, I am getting to be quite a poet," he added, without any sense of self-reproach. By now he had reached the dunes, and he had to employ his attention in the practical matter of picking each step he made. There were mean bits of shells, hostile scraps of twigs, even some broken glass, and grass sharp as weap- ons. Walking with the bare feet, though, was possible, and Mr. Leavitt rather enjoyed the complications. The stroll had become exploring in a way, and he ascended a hillock with a sense of adventure. There was a view of the acres of dunes, the inlet beyond with a boat or two on it, the distant hotels, the gas tanks, the water tanks. " I SHOULD call it beautiful," said Mr. Leavitt, and having pro- nounced this verdict he descended on the far side into a small hollow-a "dell," he called it-where he could see nothing of the landscape, where he felt shut off from the world and al- ::' :.-:_l :: ::::::: . * . , ' . ' , tL . illi . ,N . , JW ......"'h., á',:m.....;.,o&_'h= = .::. . =>= l.'::Æ '<> Ø\; :e '1 ; iÆw ' ii: '}}':":: ,;.f . ';,; .. .:,,:,,"t.. "::i ' ,:& -:t .'.. E... .,. . d ,',::::; V \,. . . ':,w, .. c' . ,'" e I -- oJ:-.. 1M :-::-...-:'4:-:_' - f . f I t>:"1 ;l\ j r. :=: r1 :1 p ::,.:,:,., , ::: " 1 : ::::t:I:: " ,, '!\. : ' .... ',,'.}.' ø; \ w" fit '.... :li;it.r::: ,::;--. ::; : ; -:;/:: ::::::: ::;-;:: :-:,':':':-:'. ;i 'Q I . :-:-: w;'iiill ':::,:-f. ,:<- ," :,:&- , , . "You never take me any place any more." ,', ::,:f{t. ',' ". , , :,, ;';;",*, ' '" ,':', "'.. ' ' :;; ':: ::;:' : ' " ::';i : "-"-<>., i;;'''.,;$è 4;:W ,,:"' ' ,,;::<':'>:'::", ,>.....,:, . . 4;%1? iif -" :-_-